The Christian Imagination

The Christian Imagination now has a new look! I’ve been planning to update the design all along to something more in line with the topic. I’m a web designer by trade, but coming up with a design from scratch that I’m happy with is an intensive process. I took a look at a number of existing templates for ideas, and actually came across one that had most of the elements I was looking for. What you are looking at is a revision of that design.

I’ve been wanting to have illustrated art as part of the design, whether I draw myself or pay someone else to do it. This illustration will do to start with, which should be familiar to some of you. I will probably do something custom later on. I’ve always wanted to move to a design that had dark text on a light background. While the reverse looks cool, it just isn’t as readable. I also wanted something a little less linear and boxy. This design has some elements that make it flow a little better. It looks more like a design.

So, I’m happy with it for now. On to other projects…

We often hear that God is love. We hear that God loves us. We are not only okay with these statements, we say them to others.

So, why is it strange to talk about God as Lover? Does that make it ‘too’ personal and intimate? Is that just a way we can’t conceive of relating to God? Does God feel? Or is God pure logic?

St. John of the Cross, in his famous Dark Night of the Soul poem, says:

5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.

8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

Is the Song of Solomon primarily a human love song between husband and wife, or an allegory about God’s love for His people? I prefer the former. There are many more comfortable with the latter. If you prefer the allegorical view, are you comfortable with the metaphors for intimacy and sex that would be attributed to God?

In the Book of Hosea, Hosea is commanded to love a woman, Gomer, that he knows will be unfaithful. There is nothing clinical about his love though. He puts his heart into it, and LOVES her. At some point, he loves her enough to let her go, and later, loves her enough to redeem her from slavery. He doesn’t hold back, even after being betrayed. This parallels the words God speaks through Hosea. God loves. He made a covenant to love, and even when betrayed, repeatedly, HE made a covenant, and HE won’t hold back his heart after having it broken. After awhile, God lets His people go their way, when they choose to worship other gods. Once they are broken, he then loves, in spite of betrayal: “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” (Hosea 2:14).

I think of myself, and how I hold back my heart for fear of being hurt. How well do I love after being hurt and betrayed? Would I do what Hosea did, even if commanded by God? What’s amazing though, is that this isn’t about my love, but about God’s. He loves US that way, and if I can get that into my heart, maybe I can grasp a fraction of what it means to love others that way.

If you’ve ever known the love of God, you know it’s nothing but reckless and it’s nothing but raging. Sometimes it hurts to be loved, and if it doesn’t hurt, it’s probably not love, maybe infatuation. I think a lot of American people are infatuated with God, but we don’t really love Him, and they don’t really let Him love them. Being loved by God is one of the most painful things in the world. It’s also the only thing that can bring us salvation, and it’s like everything else that is really wonderful: there’s a little bit of pain in it, little bit of hurt.
-Rich Mullins

Everyday Joe’s Coffee House is a nonprofit coffee house in downtown Fort Collins, Colorado. This is the outreach ministry of Timberline Oldtown Church, which meets in the coffee house on Sunday mornings. It’s the coffee house and church of which I am a part.

What does it mean to do ‘outreach’ and ‘ministry’? They are two words that have gained a fairly negative reputation among non-Christians…and even among some Christians. While noble in intent, they sometimes end up being nothing more than one-way communication from Christian to non-Christian, where no real communication takes place, and no relationship is built. When we talk and fail to listen, it can leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.

What does it mean to be a coffee house, run by Christians? Everyday Joe’s Coffee House is a place people come to. Conversation takes place. Walls come down. God works in our midst. He works in people’s hearts here, but not because of programs, but more because we provide a space where we get out of the way, a space where people can be themselves, a space where we can listen and gain understanding with one another. We have concerts on Friday and Saturday, but the concerts may or may not be performed by Christians. We have art on the walls, sometimes by Christians, sometimes not. We have little to none religious imagery. Is this our philosophy of ministry? No, it comes from our heart of who we are.

It’s a crossroads that not everyone is comfortable with. For some who favor an overt Christian message, we’re not Christian enough. For some who know we’re affiliated with a church, the fact that we’re Christians is enough for them to distrust us. But for others, there’s dialogue…and community. We learn from each other and get closer to each other as fellow humans.

We strive for quality too, because people are important. Sometimes in Christian circles we are cheap, really cheap, all while telling people how much we love them. We have our financial limitations, but even so, we have a quality espresso machine, use high end coffee, make homemade chai, and train our mostly volunteer staff how to pull quality shots. It’s good coffee. If you’re ever in Northern Colorado, please stop by.

For more information visit our website at www.everydayjoes.org.

Our executive director maintained a blog for a few years that has a number of details about Everyday Joe’s.

Our event coordinator just started a new blog to go along with our e-newsletter called Appendix E-J. The latest post, written by me, is here.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Gene Veith, author of The Gift of Art and other books, just wrote a post titled, Anti-intellectual intellectuals.

What she neglects to address, though, is that when it comes to anti-intellectualism, our elites are the worst offenders! It is precisely our intellectual elites–university professors, cutting-edge artists, culturally-in-tune authors–who are denying the efficacy of reason, insisting that truth is relative, and holding onto exploded ideas (such as Marxism and neo-Marxism) against all evidence.

He also asks: “Who is denying the existence of beauty and purposefully making art that defies the canons of classical aesthetics?” In art, there is a difference between creative and/or edgy - AND - throwing out the past in pursuit of novelty.

There is anti-intellectualism to be seen in the church world too. Anabaptists and Pentecostals/Charismatics are some cultures known for a degree of anti-intellectualism. Presbyterians and Lutherans are more of the intellectual side. What confusing me is why all churches can’t simply embrace intellect AND emotion. Is it really that complicated to realize that God wants us to develop our minds AND be in touch with our emotions?

Anti-intellectualism is tragic though. Once we remove critical thinking skills, logic, and source materials from the equation, we can then more easily be swayed by emotional arguments or poorly researched information. If you do a search for logical fallacies, you’ll find a plethora of Atheist websites that explain it. Now, to make my stance clear, I do not think Christianity can be fully understood or validated by logic. There is more to our humanity and to spirituality than logic.

However, it’s embarrassing to go to an Atheist website and have them quote source materials about, for instance, American founding fathers. Well-meaning Christians (myself included in the past), have quoted our founding fathers without ANY citations. Why should an atheist have to point out what the context of the quote was? Why should they have to point out that a given person may have quotes that give the opposite impression on their spirituality? Why should they have to point out that some quotes Christians use are mis-quoted or have no source?

If we can’t do the minimal amount of research before speaking or writing to our culture, how do we ever expect to be taken seriously?