Reflecting on Catalyst Live
The answer to the question above is that often we don’t. Not only that, but if we do, our thinking tends to be pragmatic, in that it is little more than an adjunct to acting. We think how to solve a problem, how to communicate a topic or how to avoid a pitfall. The times when we think simply because it is good for us are very limited.
Hats off to BMS World Mission, then, for creating an event which encouraged the mind to come out and play. This was not a promotional event for the mission, nor a vocational conference on a particular topic, but a thinkfest. Speaker after speaker took to the platform to speak, create poetry, play music or answer questions just to make us think, and all who attended were the richer for it.
There was a Professor of maths who spoke with a twinkle in his eye about crossing swords with fellow scientists over evidence and belief. His description of Richard Dawkins’ God as ” no more than a placeholder to cover gaps in scientific understanding” was certainly memorable.
There was a campaigner for the earth’s rights who reminded us that ”organic evangelism” means that sooner or later the person who meets a Christian will meet Christ.
There was a poet who talked about Jesus eating s**t and the death of truth.
Image: .ibelieveinadv.com
There was an ethnomusicologist who started with Beethoven and ended with dissonance and completion in Javanese music.
And there was an aging German theologian, his theology forged in a British prisoner of war camp, who described the future in Christ as “a wide space where there is no cramping any more”.
This was truly a day to savour, and my mind is all the better for it.
