Eps 85: Catacombic Freestyling with Swede Josef Gustafsson

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My guest today is a Swede!
Josef Gustafson.

swede-josef



SHOW NOTES:

MIN 1

Original Podcast Freestyle Christianity

Background… interests and the journey to create a podcast.

EXPLAIN Catacombic Theologian /

A desiring theology of becoming.

MIN 3:00 Education and a distaste for academia and models and formulas created there.

4:30

Explaining the name “freestyle Christianity”

experimental and a space that is open and with no doorkeepers.

And giving up the name

 

7:30 Religious background in childhood and how that’s changed

YWAM (Youth With a Mission)

10:00 Reading apologetic and learning about the boogie men of Evangelicals

Philosophy and Theologian as neighbors and a matter paychecks

12:30

Catacombic Theology explained in brief

asking to explain in old categories

Henri Berson

Taught to answer specific questions to guide our search for truth…. we should be shaping the questions.

We confuse the less with the more.

15:30

Why is there always something NEW?

17:30

• [Society] becomes oppressive because eventually the powerful decide the categories.

Sacrifice and squeezing in other groups into a form that wasn’t ever might for them and oppressive.

19:00 Cathedrals – catacombs in the basement. It may not reflect truth. It reflects what is being preached.

Re-present what we think is the truth. Not trying to re-present something.

Our theology (our cathedrals represent the people who built it.). We build boards (whether we see them or not and they function in an exclusive fashion.

The proclamation the church made that the spirit doesn’t move outside the Father or Son and the Son is found in the Church. (inside)

In theology, difference is looked at as if is presupposes opposition.

But it’s the other way around, opposition presupposes difference.

Novelty

26:00

EXAMPLE: the Internet and new categories .

The Pope follows no one back on Twitter, because an old institution is misunderstanding a new  category of communication.

27:30

How do the people of the Church gather in a way that works?

PETE ROLLINS episode & pints and parable


HERE THE EPISODE WITH PETE ROLLINS:


Twitter democratizes people and strips off labels of an old (pre digital) world.

New hierarchies are being created online where added a meaningful contribution makes you an important member.

Humans continue to have the same desire to connect (in-person) and gather.

Peter Rollin’s WAKE festival

The challenge of being present when you gather in person.

34:00

Church of Sweden

37:00

The growth of Pentecostalism worldwide.

38:30

Hillsong Church in Sweden drawing young people

39:30

Americanizes version of Christianity on the continent of Africa

40:00 Where the podcast is going.

Challenge themselves creativity but living in the algorithms that keep you in an echo chamber.

Bringing on guests that make subscribers uncomfortable.

Collaboration

Freestylechristianity.se

thecatacombicmachine.com on iTunes

@josefgustafsson

Catherine Keller theologian the dark and the light find what we can’t see in the light.

48:00

Be prepared to be unprepared for the novel and the new for that which will rupture our understand about what it truth and what is good.


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On Being Embarrassed When Worship Songs Seem Sexual

[CAUTION: This post is satirical. Calm down.]

Over-sexualized.

Worship songs? No. Everything.

I’ve been both a victim and a participant in the American cultural norm…Scope out opportunities to rejoin comments with, “That’s what she said.”

(To be sure, the phrase was around long before the TV show “The Office”, but a certain Michael Scott character seemed to usher the phrase into a broad and sweeping cultural vernacular. Am I right?)

So now, it seems thousands of words and phrases are hijacked, and church gatherings are not immune to it either. Or, maybe it’s just me. It can be hilarious, dreadful, or just plain embarrassing. Recently, a few worship songs have sort of had their way with me on this, so to speak.

“Bride of Christ” by Marion Coltman (I thought it was entitled: “Jesus, keep your hands where we can see ’em”) …and it’s all just a bit too much for me.

I didn’t want to think it at the time, but the Casting Crowns song “Your Love is Extravagant” sounded just a little too much like a “friends with benefits” song. Golly, all you have to do is take the “t” off Christ, and you have a fine mess (in my head):

Your Love is Extravagant

Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate
I feel like moving to the rhythm of Your grace
Your fragrance is intoxicating in our secret place
Your love is extravagant

Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known You considered me a friend
Capture my heart again

Spread wide in the arms of Christ is the love that covers sin
No greater love have I ever known; You considered me a friend

Capture my heart again
Your love is extravagant
Your friendship, it is intimate

Don’t get me wrong, Casting Crowns does so many great worship songs I really enjoy. This may be one your favorites, which is fine. I hope it creates a worshipful experience for you, and for everyone, but I get derailed.

Basically, if a worship song talks about touching, my mind wanders. Such as Kari Jobe song:

I wanna sit at your feet.

Drink from the cup in your hand.

Lay back against you and breathe, here your heart beat

This love is so deep, it’s more than I can stand.

I melt in your peace, it’s overwhelming.

 

The fact is love is risky. God is risky…Obviously risky and risqué has sort of been a fine line in songwriting. But, to be honest, I realize that love can often feel awkward as it gets emotionally deeper. When it starts to change and effect us–and affect us. The awkwardness is part of the path to greater spiritual maturity. (In this case, I’ll let you know for sure when I get there.)

Admittedly, the psalms that King David wrote got quite amatory, and for some it feels embarrassing. I can handle David getting up close and personal with God. I’m fine with Song of Solomon’s sexy talk, and David’s passionate poem songs, but maybe in singing those things corporately, we confront those issues of intimacy differently than we do in our times of personal devotions, songs, or prayers. What do you think about it?

I think the challenge, for me, is a renewing of my mind a bit more, and praying for better ears to hear. Thank you for your patience with me, Lord.

Lastly, for all you songwriters out there, if you’re writing something sweet to sing for Jesus, please–for me–don’t put the words “intimate,” “secret place,” and “rhythm” too close together. (It can be a “worship hijack” for some of us, okay, for me.)

When was the last time you felt embarrassed/awkward at the worst time?

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