My German friend Andreas says he's angry about 'church 0.5' and can't stand 'nice' church services anymore. I can sympathize with that. When you've experienced God at work in all sorts of contexts and live beyond the reality of the average-sized church box, there's no way you can ever be satisfied with church as we know it (church 1.0), let alone a shallow or slightly improved version of it (church 0.5 or 1.5). You yearn for church 2.0 and pursue this reality whatever it takes. Andreas also quotes an observation that Alan Hirsch shared with us last week after his visit to Norway:
"I'm worried about the lack of fire in the young people I met. The lack of youthful rebellion is worrying! All revolutions are fired up by young people. If the young are 'nice' something is wrong."
When I shared this with Niina, who visited us last week, she said: "Oh that's typical for Scandinavia. It's the Jante Law. Come to Finland for an even 'nicer' version." But hey, if our Nordic friends shake off this state of slumber, watch out - the apostolic 'going where no man has gone before' comes out. Reinhold calls this the 'Viking spirit'. I don't especially like that term, as these guys ransacked Holland several times. Easy talk for Reinhold, the Vikings never made it to Switzerland on their looting trips. ;-)
thanks for the quotes ;)
Posted by: andiwolf | January 16, 2007 at 13:23
yeah.. and my question really is how to shake that off...
we spend this weekend in Stockholm with old and new Nordic friends and I do hope it's going to be something else than just nice ;)
Posted by: Petra | January 19, 2007 at 11:57
The expression the "viking spirit" ist certainly not a Swiss invention and probably not Reinhold's invention. I already heard this expression in YwaM in 1992 in Glasgow at the scool of Intercession. It was a Swedish intercessior, who's name I can't spell, this guy molded the expression "viking spirit". What was ment: a heart attitute, that would fight against the powers of darkness by fearlessly preaching the gospel and setting the captives free from demonic bondage and so plundering hell. An attitute of heart, that either fears death nor people and is willing to lay down the live for the sake of the kingdom.
Posted by: Mary-Anne | February 01, 2007 at 01:14
Church 2.0? There is currently a new-church network-lite emerging in the UK which has had the misfortune to call itself 'vista'. So it will look very pretty, need less clicks to get somewhere, be un-runnable on your existing hardware, and in 3 years will be about as cool as calling yourself 'church XP'... :o)
Posted by: Phil Anderson | February 08, 2007 at 22:56
Ha ha ha... yes, good point.
Posted by: Marc | February 08, 2007 at 23:08