A Sense of Belonging

I found a new blog the other day about Creative Communities. It's mostly about relational stuff, small groups and the like. The following excerpt takes on the issue of "belonging" and "joining." I'm not in 100% agreement, but the insight is worthy of discussion.

"Today, I'm looking at chapter two from the book The Search to Belong by Joe Myers. This chapter is entitled, "Longing to Belong."

Belonging means different things to different people. According to Myers, "belonging happens when you identify with another entity -- a person or organization, or perhaps a species, culture, or ethnic group." Myers points out that belonging is not necessary reciprocal..."

Read the entire post at:

http://www.creative-community.org/2010/01/search-to-belong-for-whom-am-i.html

I'm back...

Hard to believe I laid this baby down for so long. It's time for a comeback. This time I think I'll stay, so don't be afraid to follow.

I want to start back with a reference/link to this intellgent article from RevLife:

Church Should Not Be About Hype

By Matt at The Church of No People

"To kick off our final week of Doubt Month, I want to ask you a question. Has church ever insulted your intelligence?"

See the entire piece at: http://www.revelife.com/720387522/church-should-not-be-about-hype/

The Church and the Arts

Just reading "The Gospel Accroding to Peanuts" by Robert L. Short.

You may know that Charles M. Shultz (creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the other Peanuts gang) was a believer (same with B.C.'s Johnny Hart). He said:

"...if you do not say anything in a cartoon, you might as well not draw it at all. Humor which does not say anything is worthless humor. So I contend that a cartoonist must be given a cahnce to do his own preaching."

The book has a section on the church and the arts. It begins:

"'How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?' (Ps.137:4) is a question the Church, always finding itself in but not of the world, urgently needs to consider today..."

The discussion centers on communication to culture through culture. Short continues:

"Art has a way of getting around man's intellectual and emotional predjudices. This is because art always speaks indirectly--wheather in being the vehical for delivering a new answer, or in causing a new kind of question to be asked..."

He contends that art is a reflection into which we peer seeing ourselves. As such art is a great communicator of truth and the human condition; opening windows into the soul and exposing want and need--especially the need for Christ.

The aurgument is somewhat scholarly and lofty for ideolgies expressed through cartoon illustrations. erhaps Shultz was deeper than we have imagined, but, through his art, we "got it." Case in point. The section, if not the whole book is worth a skim.