The Pinterest Church

I guess the appropriate title for this week’s blog should be “Wannabe Pastor’s Blog” as Scott and Chris have graciously allowed me space as a “guest blogger” in this discussion forum to share some of my faith perspectives.  In fact, my participation in this dialogue is somewhat on topic for what I would like to discuss.

This past week, my wife and her friend were chatting about the latest in social media ventures, “Pinterest”.  Now as I understand it, Pinterest is like an online bulletin board where people can share ideas on a variety of topics: recipes, craft ideas, book recommendations, etc.  You simply “pin” the idea to a dedicated message board and can organize the boards based on topic.  Not a bad idea.  A good way for collective wisdom to accumulate for the greater good, right?  I couldn’t help making the connection to faith.

The bible, in many ways, is this type of environment.   Throughout history, people have “pinned” their uniquely inspired experiences with God.  Initially these experiences were passed down orally, but later they were recorded in written form.  These “pinned” experiences would ultimately become canonized into our Holy Scriptures. 

Paul, for instance, “pinned” the most, writing the majority of the New Testament, examining what this new community of Christ followers should look like and how they should behave.  Four different gospel writers “pinned” their take on Jesus’ life, each with their own unique flavor and intention.  The Hebrew Bible is a large collection of men and women who “pinned” their experiences with God that provided an extraordinary glimpse into the faith lives of people of this time.   As Christians today, we benefit greatly from this divine bulletin board we now refer to as the Bible. 

Like Pinterest followers, we can read and learn from this conversation, but the conversation doesn’t have to stop.  In his seminal book, “Velvet Elvis”, Rob Bell writes how faith is a conversation borne out of the biblical writers, apostles, and early church fathers, but continues to this day.  He uses the illustration of art, posing the question, what if artists years ago, simply stopped painting?  What if they completed a piece, in this example, a painting of Elvis on black velvet, and determined that this was it, that it could not be improved upon.  That this was the “be all, end all” of artist endeavors. What a tragedy this would have been for the art world.  Fortunately, they didn’t.  Artists realized that they needed to keep painting.  There was still a story to be told.

In seminary, we participated in this neat spiritual practice where we gathered in a circle, each with a small block of clay.  We closed our eyes and prayerfully allowed our hands to shape our individual blocks of clay, however the Holy Spirit was leading us.  After a few minutes, we started at one end of the circle and took our created shapes and added them to each other, one at a time, around the circle, until the final person was holding this amazing, beautiful sculpture.  It was the collective result of each person’s individual creation.

This is how Christianity is.  We are all part of this historic, spiritual conversation; this collective piece of art, that has been going on for centuries and will continue long after we are gone.  But we are called to participate in this conversation.  We are called to contribute, in some way, using our unique insights and gifts.  I’m not talking about theological insights (although that is certainly fine), I’m talking about tossing into the mix your own spiritual gifts for the betterment of God’s world.  If your gift is music, create beautiful music and put it out there for the world to enjoy.  If your gift is dance, dance your heart out for God’s glory.  If your gift is rolling up your sleeves to build a Habitat house for a family in need, go do it!  But don’t sit on the sidelines, don’t simply be an observer.

The conversation needs your input. You are equipped with unique gifts from the Creator for the greater good.  So how are you using them? What are you going to pin?