Category: culture

We’ve got another year before we really need to have a definitive answer for our son regarding Santa. For the moment, Sam knows that the “pretty” Christmas decorations and the dude dressed up in red have got something to do with celebrating Jesus’ birthday. I think I like what Driscoll has to say in his recent Washington Post article.

Here’s a snippet:

When it comes to cultural issues like Santa, Christians have three options: (1) we can reject it, (2) we can receive it, or (3) we can redeem it.

Since Santa is so pervasive in our culture, it is nearly impossible to simply reject Santa as part of our annual cultural landscape. Still, as parents we don’t feel we can simply receive the entire story of Santa because there is a lot of myth built on top of a true story.

Redeeming Santa

So, as the parents of five children, Grace and I have taken the third position to redeem Santa. We tell our kids that he was a real person who did live a long time ago. We also explain how people dress up as Santa and pretend to be him for fun, kind of like how young children like to dress up as pirates, princesses, superheroes, and a host of other people, real and imaginary. We explain how, in addition to the actual story of Santa, a lot of other stories have been added (e.g., flying reindeer, living in the North Pole, delivering presents to every child in one night) so that Santa is a combination of true and make-believe stories.

We do not, however, demonize Santa. Dressing up, having fun, and using the imagination God gave can be an act of holy worship and is something that, frankly, a lot of adults need to learn from children.

What we are concerned about, though, is lying to our children. We teach them that they can always trust us because we will tell them the truth and not lie to them. Conversely, we ask that they be honest with us and never lie. Since we also teach our children that Jesus is a real person who did perform real miracles, our fear is that if we teach them fanciful, make-believe stories as truth, it could erode confidence in our truthfulness where it really matters. So, we distinguish between lies, secrets, surprises, and pretend for our kids. We ask them not to tell lies or keep secrets, but do teach them that some surprises (like gift-giving) and pretending (like dressing up) can be fun and should be encouraged. We tell them the truth and encourage them to have fun watching Christmas shows on television and even sitting on Santa’s lap for a holiday photo if they so desire. For parents of younger children wanting them to learn the real story of Santa Claus the Veggie Tales movie Saint Nicholas is a good choice.

Read the rest, including a history of Santa.

All this info is from the SIM Australia website. Five years of peace… Five years of rebuilding Southern Sudan following decades of war… Now Sudan stands at the crossroads… A referendum is scheduled for 9 January 2011 to decide whether Southern Sudan will become an independent country. This is part of the 2005 Naivasha Agreement between the Khartoum central government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M).

The way forward has the potential for major instability. After 5 years of peace; the return of refugees to their homeland and the investment of many mission workers and other NGOs in rebuilding the devastated Southern Sudan, the fear of a fresh outbreak of violence is real.

Will you pray with us for the country of Sudan, for its people, and for a peaceful resolution to the question of an independent Southern Sudan?

Check out the SIM Australia website for more detail on the issues surrounding the referendum and also a list of comprehensive prayer points. Pray for the a month, from now until 9 Jan. Peace.

Mark Sayers ripped it to shreds at the Youthworks’ Youth Ministry Conference this year!! He shared some profound thinking on his analysis of culture and identifying dominant idols that need to be smashed in proclaiming the gospel. He had some fascinating observations on talk-show goddess, Oprah Winfrey, as she arrived in the country.

Here is an article he has linked to on his blog. The author forms a bunch of parallels between Oprah and Australia. Here’s a snippet:

Ouch. There is nothing so unsettling as feeling you are unloved or unaccepted by your own family – but this does go some way to explaining Oprah’s fixation on drawing out the minute details of other people’s lives […] the over-sharing of her own life, and also one of the hallmarks of her enterprise: bestowing gifts on others to gain approval.

And here we are bestowing gifts on Oprah to win her approval. The parallels between Oprah and a country born of a convict past, which oppressed its native inhabitants (guilty!), still suffers the cultural cringe, desperately seeks acknowledgement on the international stage, built on Christian values (calls itself Christian) but who eschews Christ, wants to stand apart from the Mother Country (but secretly harbours a desire to gain its love and approval), and is consumed by a culture of materialism and food obsession, are uncanny.

I’m not sure who’s the more insecure: Oprah or Oz.

Read the rest here.

Starbucks failed to understand the fine coffee culture in Australia. They tried to run the same model of coffee house that worked in Seattle and throughout North America, and in the end their business failed to take root in Australia. In 2008 they closed all but a handful of their Australian stores. As of yesterday, Krispy Kreme Australia went into voluntary administration. Perhaps Krispy Kreme, like Starbucks, also failed to appropriately understand their Australian market.

When it comes to church growth, there are lots of really exciting things happening in North American churches. God is doing some exciting things as the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection is proclaimed. However, I think sometimes we might be a bit quick to adopt church growth strategies from our North American friends, that may likewise be destined to flop.

Does this mean we don’t learn from them? Not at all. But we need to prayerfully work hard to have strategies that take into account our own unique culture and context.