Read Narnia, Join the Discussion

By On June 13, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In Current Events, The Opus Project

This summer, we are reading book two of the seven-part series, The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a wonderful read. Come join the discussion June 30th at 9am! If you haven’t started the book, you still have two weeks to join in on the church-wide summer “one read“, and it’s super cheap on Amazon ($0.01 used).

I could list several reasons why you should consider reading this book, and why we should value any book discussion, but I will propose one simple argument: Stories are indispensable to our understanding of creation, and we can grow as readers (and as story tellers) when we work together within a story’s context. So how could this high fantasy work help us grow as adults? Consider Lewis’ preface to Lucy:

I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand a word you say, but I shall still be your affectionate Godfather.

Reading literature takes time and a certain amount of attention that’s easily lost in our society’s pace. When we enter into a narrative, we are compelled to value the details – to retain small bits of information that convey larger themes and bear significance when threaded through the greater story. When I read, it’s generally shorter articles or essays based loosely around current events. Taking a step out of what’s current and diving into a timeless classic like this one can renew our ability to think creatively. Whether you read for pleasure, to satisfy a summer reading list, or not at all, take some time in the next two weeks to give The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a chance! There’s no reason to rush to finish before the 30th, but let the upcoming group discussion be a catalyst that pushes you into this story.

The thought of reading fantasy literature together might stretch you. I’ve thought to myself, aren’t these books for children? J.R.R. Tolkien, contemporary of C.S. Lewis and author of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, among others, helped frame for me an appreciation of high fantasy in his essay On Fairy Stories:

It is true that in recent times fairy-stories have usually been written or “adapted” for children.

But so may music be, or verse, or novels, or history, or scientific manuals. It is a dangerous
process, even when it is necessary. It is indeed only saved from disaster by the fact that the arts
and sciences are not as a whole relegated to the nursery; the nursery and schoolroom are merely
given such tastes and glimpses of the adult thing as seem fit for them in adult opinion (often
much mistaken). Any one of these things would, if left altogether in the nursery, become gravely
impaired. So would a beautiful table, a good picture, or a useful machine (such as a microscope),
be defaced or broken, if it were left long unregarded in a schoolroom. Fairy-stories banished in
this way, cut off from a full adult art, would in the end be ruined; indeed in so far as they have
been so banished, they have been ruined.

The value of fairy-stories is thus not, in my opinion, to be found by considering children in
particular. Collections of fairy-stories are, in fact, by nature attics and lumber-rooms, only by
temporary and local custom play-rooms. Their contents are disordered, and often battered, a
jumble of different dates, purposes, and tastes; but among them may occasionally be found a
thing of permanent virtue: an old work of art, not too much damaged, that only stupidity would
ever have stuffed away.

Shall we read it, then? Starting Sunday, June 16th, we’ve got two weeks to get started. I think you’ll find it a quick and enjoyable read. When we come together on Sunday, June 30th, at 9am (before corporate worship), Todd Best will lead us to explore the text through discussion. The adult education team will also have some news for us about what expect in the fall!

 

Opus Project: Next Steps

By On January 18, 2013 · Leave a Comment · In The Opus Project

On November 16th, we officially launched the Opus Project on Faith, Work, and Culture with a special event. We were encouraged by the interest and turnout. It was just what we were hoping for — enough momentum to get the ball rolling  on the project as a whole and for the four focus areas to launch ongoing conversations on social justice, the neighborhood, the arts and  culture, and work. We saw roughly 50 people attend that night, and each  of the focus areas had lively discussion that easily could have gone  deeper into the evening.
As for the next steps for the Opus Project there is much potential as we consider how each of the facets of  the project may unfold. While we have four different focus areas, there  are at least a few different avenues for exploring these various themes:

  • Forums: one-night special events with “cultural intake” and discussion (lectures, art exhibits, film screenings, a book discussions, etc.)
  • Adult Education Classes on Sunday mornings (like this one)
  • Reading Group: monthly discussion of selected books and essays (see below)
  • Focus Area Discussions
  • Blog with resources

The  next step that we are taking is to restart the Reading  Group. The Reading Group meets on a  monthly basis to discuss books that are pertinent to the Opus Project, and it is the  most consistent way  to be involved in the Opus conversation. We hope  you will seriously consider participating. Our first meeting of the spring will be Sunday, January 27 at 9am at the church facilities.

Book: Pulitzer Prize winning novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Get yourself a copy; we will discuss p. 1-125 on Jan. 27.

Dates: 4th Sunday – Jan. 27, Feb. 24, Mar. 24, Apr. 28
We look forward to moving the Opus Project forward, and we hope you will join us.

Finally, if you would like to be added to the Opus Project email list, send me a note at toddbest@gmail.com.

Todd Best

(for Chris Hiatt and Stephen Addcox)

 

Opus is for [YOU]

By On November 15, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Current Events, The Opus Project

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been encouraged at some of the conversations sparked by the Opus Project. For all of our similarities, both as Christians and as a church, we are also a remarkably diverse people at CCC. If you spend enough time to get past the “Hello” and “Go Gata”, you will find a group of apprentices to Jesus that is in many ways just trying to make sense of the world and our part in it. Friday night is an opportunity for us to talk about that in a way that is formative, practical and encouraging. That’s why I am so thrilled about the Opus Project.

When people start to discuss “culture” in the context of church, I’m prone to jump to conclusions and assume more than I should. Starting this Friday, nearly 50 people have signed up to participate in panels that will get at some of the core issues of life that are often absent from our conversations as followers of Jesus. I look forward to this event, and the entire project, as an opportunity for expanding my categories of thinking in relating faith and daily life.

Our four focus areas are in many ways foundational to life in the world as followers of Jesus – being a neighbor, observing (and contributing to) the arts & culture, working, and seeking justice in the world.
I expect that, through God’s working in us and through us, we will all be surprised at what we find by interacting with each other on these topics. Just as my heart is challenged and transformed by Scripture on Sundays, I expect that my mind will be renewed by honest discourse on these things. I just wish I could be a part of all of the discussions!

Friday night is simply the church providing space, setting the table and opening the floor.
What will you bring to the discussion?

~~~

The Opus Project on Faith, Work and Culture launches Friday, November 16th at 7PM at Christ Community Church.

 

Opus Project: One Event, Four Conversations

By On November 8, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Current Events, The Opus Project

The Opus Project on Faith, Work, and Culture will set sail next Friday, Nov. 16, at 7:00 pm. In that night of conversation, we will hear details about the project and gain insight as to why such an initiative might be fitting for our church. If you missed the original post outlining Opus, be sure to take a look at that here.

Opus has a four-fold focus meant to broadly address a range of topics in our effort to nurture reflection and conversation about the church’s contribution to the flourishing of society and the renewal of all things. We call these our four focus areas:

  • Work
  • The Arts and Culture
  • Social Justice
  • The Neighborhood

As Opus unfolds in various forms, be it a class, reading group, lecture, special event, art exhibit, or whatever else, one or more of these focus areas will be in play. Ideally, on the 16th we’ll see four instantaneous conversations get started in each of these areas. Here’s a rundown of what you can expect to see from each:

  • Work – a panel discussion with four panelists from different lanes of life reflecting on the interplay between their faith and their own work. Panelists include:
    -Jay Lynch, oncologist, dean of admissions, UF College of Medicine
    -Sarah West, familial engineer (mom!), studied English, food crafter
    -Christy Johns, recent college graduate working in horticultural science
    -Jason Coleman, neuroscientist at UF
  • Social Justice – Britt Daniel will guide a discussion with the help of a guest from a child advocacy organization. In this session, we will ponder the questions: what is social justice? how might our faith propel us to social justice? what keeps us from social justice?
  • The Neighborhood – Ken French will facilitate a conversation about who is my neighbor and what does it mean to be a good neighbor for the good of the city, both in the literal residential neighborhood and in the wider area.

There will be an RSVP card in the bulletin this Sunday, so you can indicate your intentions and whether you need childcare. For questions or more info., email me (Todd Best) at toddbest@gmail.com.

Tagged with: • • •
 

The Arts in Imagination

By On November 1, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In The Opus Project

The following is a guest post from Stephen Addcox, a PhD student in the English Department at UF. The Opus Project on Faith, Work and Culture launches in 15 days. Learn more here.

___________________________________________________________

Is there a difference between imaginary and imaginative?

Two weeks ago the Sunday morning class Houses, Gardens, and Children read an essay by Marilynne Robinson which suggested that imagination is a key component in how we relate to our communities. According to Robinson, “Community, at least community larger than the immediate family, consists very largely of imaginative love for people we do not know or whom we know very slightly.” A key question that developed during our discussion was precisely what to make of Robinson’s use of the word “imaginative” in this moment.

For many of us the idea of imagination or being imaginative often connotes a sense of childish pretense or fiction, and yet Robinson believes that imagination plays a vital role in our lived experience. An example of the kind of imaginative work that Robinson describes might be found in the story of the Good Samaritan, itself an imaginative fiction, in which the Samaritan takes compassion on the beaten traveler. Without knowing anything about him, the Samaritan loved in the same way that he would have wanted to be loved had their positions been reversed–that kind of love takes imagination. It isn’t imaginary; on the contrary, such love is as real as it gets.

In only a few weeks, on November 16, the Opus Project launch event will explore several areas of faith, work, and culture. Part of that exploration involves our consideration of and involvement with the arts. If imagination can impact how we enact love of neighbor, surely the arts, through which imagination is used to probe the depths of human experience, also speaks to us as Christians. As a way to begin our conversation on the arts, we will be offering a screening of the 2012 Academy Award winning animated short The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Afterward, I will be leading a discussion on what this story specifically, and imaginative creativity through the arts as a whole, contributes to our understanding of the role that Christians can play in the arts, not just as consumers but as creators.

We like to draw a line between the imaginative and the imaginary, but perhaps they are closer than we realize. Through the Opus Project, I hope that we can foster a community of artists who envision and enact a deep intertwining of their faith with creativity. Jesus himself told imaginative stories, and we can do the same.