I’m hiring!

No, I haven’t gone to glory, I’m just snowed under, but still keen to advance the conversation on population. Perhaps tomorrow.

In the meantime, part of the snow is pretty exciting – I’M LOOKING FOR NEW STAFF.

At CCIW, we’ve got a number of paid positions we are looking to fill next year.

1. A Director of Children’s Ministries – 3 days / week.
2. A Music Director – 1.5 days / week
3. A band leader – 0.5 days (Sunday morning) / week
4. An office secretary – 10 hours per week, pretty flexible

If you are interested, or know anyone who might be, shoot me an email through this blog, or the CCIW website

Read Full Post »

Population etc (Part1)

Here goes.

How do you come at this issue. The proper starting point is theological, and that has 4 axes.

By Kramer from flickr

Creation: God is loving creator of all that, sovereignly rules over it, and appoints humanity, as his image bearers, to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it / hav dominion over it (Gen 1.28). We learn more about this dominion – it consists in cultivating the earth and keeping it (Geb 2.15) – that is, to both increase its productivity and to guard it against degradation.

Fall: sin eneters, corrupts and kills. The first humans overthrow the God given order, worship and serve the created thing rather than the creator. And creation bears the curse of this sin. From now until redemption, we only spoil things

Redemption: In Christ, God is restoring creation and fulfilling his purpose for it. He exercises the human dominion over creation that there ought to be (the miracles), and by his death and resurrection, recreates human beings in the image of God.

Consummation: there is plenty of ‘not yet’ to this redemption. WHen Christ returns he will destroy finally and utterly all sin and evil, so that creation is freed from its bondage to decay and share the glory of the children of God.

All fairly standard stuff: What implications does this have for a Christian view of population? I see two:

1. First, unless otherwise revoked, part of the purpose of God for humanity it to fill the earth. Unless and until the earth is full, population increase is a good thing. The question is, is the earth full now? The answer is no (more on this in the next post).
2. Second, the idea that ‘nature’ is pristine and ought not to be spoiled by human activity seems not to be a Biblical notion. Creation, while good, is not perfect, and in fact is depicted as requiring human intervention to fulfil its purpose. And its purpose is primarily to serve human needs (Ps 115.16). Tilling it – turning what is a highly unproductive thing into a resource / raw material for production – is part of the creation mandate.

There is so much more to say – but this is a start, with more to come.

Read Full Post »