There’s lots of talk at the moment about Christianity needing to ‘get with the programme’ when it comes to its approach to matters of sex and relationships. The out of date needs to get up to speed and the traditional needs to get a bit more radical.

But three articles have crossed my path in the last few weeks that have reminded how Christianity’s approach has something far more attractive, far more ‘radical’, than much of what we see in our culture. Largely we live at a time in the West where the individual is championed above all. The individual’s rights, desires, perspective, whether that be in regard to marriage, sexuality or dating, and a whole host of other areas of life. It’s all about me. 

Yet these three pieces show Christianity putting forward something different. Something that is turned radically outward. Something that offers a different way.

One where our natural inclination to self-infatuation and turning to a lover to meet all our needs is confronted with a commitment to community shaped by the Lover who is eternally faced outwards.

I found these a healthy challenge. Have a read…

– On Marriage & Community:

Marriage for the Common Good:

“When lovers are staring into one another’s eyes, their backs are to the world.”

Theologian James K. A. Smith argues that we need a radical correction to the typical view of marriage that pervades in our culture and in our churches. Which way are you facing?

– On Sexuality & Community:

Traditional Sexuality, Radical Community:

“I believe one of the most serious callings of the church in our age is to create new, counter cultural plausibility structures that makes the life and demands of the gospel plausible, practical and attractive.”

Pastor Corey Widmer puts forward a vision for church community that is hugely important for our cultural moment, when the Bible’s teaching is increasingly questioned and when following Jesus is deemed to be too costly.

– On Dating & Community:

Dating Advice You Actually Need:

“Over the years I’ve come to see that there is one key mark of a maturing relationship centered and continually centring itself on Christ…”

A refreshing approach to dating from Derek Rishmawy, and you’ll probably be surprised what the advice is. Turns out it was pretty essential for me.

What do you think? 

A friend gave us a Songs for Saplings CD when he’d heard our daughter had just been born. Perhaps unsurprisingly as a fresh-faced parent I’d never heard of them before, but the record was an instant hit on the kitchen CD player: catchy songs, focused on communicating deep Biblical truths to little kids, often in question and answer format. It was a kind gift.

But now, Songs for Saplings are kindly making their entire catalogue of six Q&A volumes, and their ABC & 123 volumes available for free! An amazing gift!

Songs are powerful things. They get inside of us. I remember driving with another family’s kids and Daft Punk’s ‘Get Lucky’ came on the radio. Within seconds the six year old was singing along, “We’re up all night to get some. We’re up all night for good fun. We’re up all night to get lucky.” We can’t deny that songs stick! So amongst the latest pop and our own favourite classics that we’re introducing them to and talking to them about, how good to also ensure our kids our singing truth about God from the Scriptures.

Whether you’re a parent, or a pastor, or a friend, you should definitely check this resource out! Likewise share it with families. Songs for Saplings are produced by James and Dana Dirksen and family and they seek to “create lively, fun songs that seek to deliver the deepest of Biblical truth in a format that you and your children will love to listen to.”

Click here for the free music downloads (by the way, I’ve no idea how long it will be available for free).

Here’s a little bit more on their vision, including an interesting quote from Tim Keller on the need for catechesis.

Songs for Saplings makes music for kids. We want them to understand who God is and what He has done, as well as what He wants your children to do and to be. Our music is adapted from scripture and from classic works meant to teach our kids the deep and wonderful things taught in the Bible.

 

“The more the culture around us becomes post- and anti-Christian the more we discover church members in our midst, sitting under sound preaching, yet nonetheless holding half-pagan views of God, truth, and human nature…This is not the first time the church in the West has lived in such a deeply non-Christian cultural environment. In the first several centuries the church had to form and build new believers from the ground up, teaching them comprehensive new ways to think, feel, and live in every aspect of life. They did this not simply through preaching and lectures, but also through catechesis. Catechesis was not only for children, but also for adult converts and even for leaders.”

—Tim Keller

 

We hope that you will benefit from this music and use it to teach your children about our great God and his great love for us.

 

Not only are all the mp3s available free of charge, but the sheet music, chords and lyrics are all also available as free resources. So if there’s a song that you particularly like, why not get your band to use it in a Sunday service?

Previously I linked to the first-part of a three part video series on ‘One to One Ministry’, or, in other words, meeting up to read the Bible and pray with someone.

I think they’re a really handy set of empowering videos, and I’m grateful to the legendary Amy Wicks for doing us a great service. They show that reading the Bible with someone is something that’s pretty simple, can become pretty normal, and yet is also massively spiritually significant.

If you didn’t see Part 1 of the trilogy, just click the link above. Here’s the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi equivalents…

Part 2:

Part 3: