The Christian’s Task In Every Age (via Carl Trueman)

Gary Ware

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November 5, 2020

A quote from a recent book by Carl Trueman, as posted here.
“The task of the Christian is not to whine about the moment in which he or she lives but to understand its problems and respond appropriately to them.”
The more Christians see their mission as nurturing a cultural norm, the more they’ll grow to love the cultural norm and the less they’ll love and empathise with those who they perceive as impeding their progress in nurturing that cultural norm.
By missioning as those who seek to see people enter the kingdom of God we’ll value them and their transformation as paramount whereever they are located in contemporary culture.

The Ten Happiest Songs, According To Science (via Mental Floss)

Gary Ware

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November 5, 2020

If Science says it, it must be true.
This article on Mental Floss reports on a study by a Dutch neuroscientist into why people shared a response of happiness to certain songs.
Findings about the songs included:

“their average tempo was between 140 and 150 beats per minute, which is a couple dozen beats faster than the average pop song. And while a few songs were played in a minor key, the majority of them were in a major one. Jolij also identified trends in the lyrics. Most, he said, were either about “positive events” like parties or romantic experiences, or they simply “did not make sense at all.”

As it happens, it is a very strong list of happy songs.
And people could use some happiness just now.

  1. “DON’T STOP ME NOW” // QUEEN
  2. “DANCING QUEEN” // ABBA
  3. “GOOD VIBRATIONS” // THE BEACH BOYS
  4. “UPTOWN GIRL” // BILLY JOEL
  5. “EYE OF THE TIGER” // SURVIVOR
  6. “I’M A BELIEVER” // THE MONKEES
  7. “GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN” // CYNDI LAUPER
  8. “LIVIN’ ON A PRAYER” // BON JOVI
  9. “I WILL SURVIVE” // GLORIA GAYNOR
  10. “WALKING ON SUNSHINE” // KATRINA AND THE WAVES

Clips are all embedded at the post with more background.

The Day The Church Visible Gathers With The Church Eternal And Looks Forward By Looking Back (via Will Willimon)

Gary Ware

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November 4, 2020

I’ve adopted a statement in my funerals for church members that they “have departed from the church visible and joined the church eternal”.
Last Sunday some churches observe a day named All Saints Day, which at its best is a time when the church visible fully acknowledges that the departure from the church visible to the church eternal does not mean those saints are no longer with us; rather, they’re just no longer physically present. Their witness and fellowship continue.

From Will Willimon:

On All Saints’ Day the church gathers with the dead. We name all those who told us about Jesus and who walked with Jesus in such a way that we wanted to walk with Christ too. The communion of saints comprises the church. Remembrance of and gratitude for the saints keep the church from being reduced to the merely present moment and the church’s membership from being limited to those who currently sit in the pews. The church recalls its dead through time, honours their bodies in its funeral practices, and looks forward by looking back. Thus, the church is a community of memory. Memory enables us to see God acting through time, making historians of us all.

William H Willimon, Aging – Growing Old In Church, Baker Academic, 2020, pg 115.

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