Finding God in a Night Club

Ekklesia is an influencial UK-based think tank that presumes upon itself the role of being 'Christian' voice in the UK. Frankly, they fail to represent classic or orthodox Chrisitan opinion in any shape or form. None-the-less, engagement is better than anger, so I wrote a response to a piece they posted yesterday, and they were gracious enough to post it to their site. Then this morning I came in, and found that all sight of my article had vanished, (although my name still comes up on a site-based seach). So -- for better of for worse, here is what I wrote:

“Ekklesia researcher Jordan Tchilingirian, who is also a club DJ said: "Young people, including many Christians, don't make the same sacred-secular divisions that many bishops do. Young people can find God in a night-club or at a gig as easily as they can in St Paul's Cathedral" he said.”

My response:

I agree that the sacred-secular divide is a residue from the Enlightenment, but is it really that easy to "...find God in a night-club..." unless the Christian faithful are intentionally planting seeds of hope and dialogue, along with an element of challenging young people to think through life's issues?

No one disputes that it is possible for a person to find God in a night club. The question is, will they? The primarily intention of the average clubber in west London where I live, is almost certainly to simply "have a good time". I question how many out there on a Saturday night are on an immediate and desperate quest for God. An apostle of the ‘pre-modern’ Church of the 1st century indicates why this might be: “…the god of this present age has blinded their unbelieving minds so as to shut out the sunshine of the Good News of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:4, Weymouth). I therefore suggest that a contextualised, intentional dialogue is therefore needed. For instance, a local community pastor and I run a film night periodically in our community. We do not push Christian "message" movies - but we do endeavour to provide a safe non-church space whereby life issues may be thought about in the context of society rather than the church, and where questions can be raised.

So while I agree with Jordan Tchilingirian that there is an over-arching sense of the spiritual that goes beyond church walls, there also needs to be an intentional engagement for Christian spirituality to have meaning and engagement in everyday life. As Robert E. Webber says in 'Ancient-Future Faith', "In the post-modern world evangelisation will take place within the various cultures of the world" (p 146). I endorse the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, in that as a part of our own media culture herein Britain, (paid for by public licence fees), Radio 1 has no right to be excluded from intentional dialogue when it comes to Christian spirituality.