Ah, the glories of Myspace statuses. This indeed is fine news... methinks something good this way comes... Go Jon!
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Oh, in other Jon Foreman-related news, here's the newly uploaded Profile Picture on his Myspace!
(the now-famous self-portrait)
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Lastly, (also a completely Jon Foreman news piece), here is a new blog from the Foreman dude. Read it and prepare to be amazed!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
letters to the editor 4
Hi tonya,
thanks for your thoughtful question. I like where you're coming from- trying to get at the heart of what it means to be a believer and how to best spend our time here on the planet. I don't recall ever saying that we want to be "relevant to our current culture" but it's certainly a tag we've received from others at times. here's my thoughts on the subject:
to begin, let's separate the talk about content and language for a moment.
content first: I want to create art that has timeless transcendence shining through, art that is true. It seems to me that if the subject matter is an attempt to be "relevant" it might as well be an act. There's nothing wrong with acting but I'm a horrible actor! I'm not interested. For this I meditate and pray that God would give me his words, the words that were true before time began.
language: For communication reasons, language has to be understood- current, "relevant." We need to use metaphors and icons that will be meaningful to the folks around us. We need to dive into what it means to be alive in the house, alive in the community, alive in our country. We need to invest deeply in the folks around us and give them love in ways that are meaningful to them.
the paragraph that you included says, "imagine what would have happened had they spent their time studying and conferencing about the pagan world around them." Maybe we've forgotten that paul himself studied up on greek gods. When he started his appeal for Christ in Athens he began like this: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you." So he did his homework and began with common ground.
I agree with you that our current western church (including myself from time to time) is far too interested in being cool, being trendy, being relevant. But these folks might be doing the same thing you're hoping to do: namely, trying to figure out what it means to be a believer in the here and now. So talk to them about it. We can't resort to throwing rocks at the things we don't understand... especially other believers. The hand needs the foot needs the mouth needs the ear. And we all need the mind of christ. We're called to love each other and love never goes out of fashion.
Christ will never be cool. Terrifying, life-changing, shocking,
and iconoclastic, but never cool. Jesus is not my homeboy. The Gospel will always be "relevant" but never trendy.
peace,
jon
----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: Tonya
Date: Aug 12, 2008 12:58 PM
First I want to say I think you are a very talented singer/songwriter. I really enjoy your music.
I have a question, I have read some articles where you were quoted as saying you were trying to be "relevent to our current culture" I don't know if this is true or not, but below you will see an excerpt of an article I recently read and I thought of you and wanted to know your opinion on such matters. I know you say your Christians in a band, not a Christian band, but I sometimes wonder if we as Christians should allow a separation/or line drawn in our lives like that. I am not trying to offend, just very curious as to your thoughts. Here's the excerpt that made me question :
Their official slogan for the conference is, "The Culture is Changing: Are You?"
So these leadership gurus busy themselves in this 8th year of the new millennium, frantically running from one conference to the next, telling pastors they need to keep changing every time the culture does. The speed with which society leaps from one fad to the next is in direct proportion to the chronic and worsening restlessness of a world that has rejected the one true God. Instead of holding up the one thing that never changes, the Word of God in its timeless clarity, these foolish men chase the wind, desperately trying to stay hip and cool, trying every carnal means at their disposal to stay clued in on the latest Big Thing, while all the time, what the world really needs is set aside. What a wicked waste of time, money and talent in this futile quest for acceptance by the world. In the polytheistic world in which the Apostles ministered, imagine what would have happened had they spent their time studying and conferencing about the pagan world around them to get clues about how to best present a "relevant" Gospel. No. They preached Christ crucified in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the world was turned upside down.
Thanks in advance if you respond,
Tonya Vakser
Welp that's it for now!
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